Suspected Gang Members Planned to Cut Off Boy's Fingers and Ears Before Killing Him: Prosecutors

Suspected Gang Members Planned to Cut Off Boy's Fingers and Ears Before Killing Him: Prosecutors

Three suspected gang members accused of executing a 9-year-old boy in Chicago because of his father’s alleged rival gang affiliations first planned to abduct the child and torture him by cutting off his fingers and ears, authorities said.

Little Tyshawn Lee was convinced to leave a playground with the men, who allegedly told the child they were his father’s friends on the afternoon of Nov. 2, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at a press conference Tuesday.

“The plan was to execute him in the park, but we learned there were too many people in the park so they lured him into an alley, promising him a juice box,” Guglielmi said.

The basketball he had been playing with when he was convinced to go with the men lay near his body.

“Tyshawn was an innocent child betrayed by these three men," Interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante said. "And sadly he paid the ultimate price for gang violence, senseless gang violence that plagued his neighborhood."

The 22-year-old alleged member of the Bang Bang Gang/Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones reportedly started to brag to other inmates at the Cook County Jail that he looked the fourth grader in the face before killing him.

He laughed as he recounted the murder, the newspaper wrote.

Corey Morgan, 27, had been arrested and charged in November for the killing, and another suspect identified as Kevin Edwards, 22, remains on the loose. Authorities say he may be in Iowa.

The three allegedly talked about producing a rap song about killing Tyshawn and considered torturing the child before murdering him, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said during Tuesday’s press conference.

“I don’t think I have ever been more disgusted and appalled by such humanity,” Alvarez said. “The intentional murder of Tyshawn Lee is among the worst I have ever seen in my almost 30 years as a prosecutor.”

Tyshawn’s father, 25-year-old Pierre Stokes, is a convicted felon who officials believe is a member of Killa Ward, an offshoot of the Gangster Disciples, with which the Black P Stones faction has had a long-running feud.